Students must have freedom of choice?

With the increasing number of suicides committed by teenagers after their dismal performance in the Board exams, parents seem worried. After the recently announced CBSE results for Class 10 and 12, the capital alone registered seven cases of suicide by teenagers.
The scenario is not only upsetting parents, but sociologists and psychiatrists seem perturbed by this disruptive social trend. Says renowned psychiatrist Samir Parikh, ?It?s an alarming signal for our society that our youngsters are getting depressed because of their mediocre performance in exams. Peer pressure and the rise in competition to move ahead are two major factors for this trend. Both parents and teachers must ensure that their children and students don?t get entangled in this depressive net and have reasons to smile even in the time of crisis.?
But beyond the distant sermonising, the pain and suffering the student goes through can only be fully understood by him, feels Sameera Bhargav, a Class 12 student, who attempted suicide because of her poor performance in mathematics. ?It?s not that I lack the courage to face the world after failure, but what was? unbearable for me was to accept the fact that I?m far behind my classmates. Despite doing my best, I decided to end my life to escape the humiliation. But I was saved by God?s grace,? she explains.
Refusing to accept the lack of confidence and courage in her daughter, Sameera?s mother Gitanjali Bhargav says, ?Sometimes, the reason behind a bad performance might be an incorrect choice of subjects. Since every child has an inborn talent for a specific field or discipline, it?s the duty of both the parents and teachers to help them pursue what they enjoy. That?s what exactly happened with Sameera. She is exceptionally good in literature, but we made her take science and maths to make her an engineer which proved fatal for our child as she is highly sensitive and can?t take failure easily.?
Prof. Manjit Arya, who taught sociology at the JNU, says that it?s high time that teenagers are given their space to pursue what they actually like. ?In today?s world, several avenues other than the conventional ones have opened. So, why should we impose our preferences upon them?? he asks.

Barbie, Mickey out, action heroes in

Youngsters are very particular about which cartoon character or movie idol can grace their school bags, tiffin box, pencil case and so on
No school bag, tiffin box, water bottle or pencil case is even considered if it doesn?t come with a cool Power Ranger, Harry Potter, Ninja Turtles? design or picture on it. And nobody wants to touch anything with the colour pink as it?s considered too girly and common. Barbie doll and Mickey Mouse are over the hill!
?Mickey Mouse is so old. He belonged to my sister?s era. I am all for Power Rangers. My dad didn?t want to buy me a Power Ranger school bag so I requested my uncle who lives in Mumbai to buy me one. Can?t wait to see it. My cousins also promised to send me all the new stuff they have bought,? says six-year-old Rahul Srivastava.

If you still want to stick with something old, Pokemon and Beyblade are a safe bet since kids are still crazy about them. When asked why Barbie, a perennial favourite till the other day, is no longer considered cool, A. Pooja a fifth standard student says, ?She is a little old now. My older cousins who are in high school had Barbie merchandise, so wouldn?t I look really outdated if I sported something with Barbie on it?? Pooja prefers the cartoon character Tweety and Powerpuff girls instead. ?Powerpuff girls are very friendly but can destroy the evil fly if they feel like, what can Barbie do?,? she asks.

If you think girls ignoring Barbie is shocking, boys are bored of navy blue and black coloured school bags. Bhargava Sai, a 12-year-old says, ?It?s so annoying to see only girls sport colourful things whereas we have just black or navy blue bags. Now I have a nice Power Ranger water bottle and can?t wait to take it to school. My cousin who lives in America sent me Bayblade erasers and pencil sharpeners. I?m sure nobody has them. Atleast I haven?t seen them in any of the shops here.?

Talking about shops, shopkeepers say they are being bombarded with demands for Power Rangers and Beyblade merchandise. ?We have enough Beyblade merchandise but are not able to meet the demand for Power Ranger stock,? says Sunil Prakash, owner of Prakash Party Shop. Other stores in the meanwhile cash in on all time favourite characters like Harry Potter. ?Pencil boxes with characters from the Harry Potter ?s latest movie have all been sold out,? says Venkat Prasad, the sales manager at Lifestyle.

Interesting facts

Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his work on the photoelectric effect.

100,000 Swiss francs or approximately $80,000 is needed to open a Swiss bank account.

The average iceberg weighs 20,000,000 tons. In Newfoundland, iceberg ice is now ‘harvested’ for bottled water and vodka production.

The colours and patterns you see when you rub your eyes are called pressure phosphenes.

Popcorn pops because of water stored in a small circle of starch in each kernel. When the kernel is heated, the water turns into steam which builds up pressure until the kernel explodes.

The first camera was called the camera obscura, which means dark chamber.

‘Brain Age’ keeps you thinking

He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision — he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: “The horror! The horror! ”Ryuta Kawa-shima’s new game, “Brain Age,” (Nintendo for Nintendo DS, $19.95) deserves a four-star rating if only for devising a clever way to convince gamers to read aloud from dramatic passages like this one by Joseph Conrad.
To rack up top scores in “Brain Age,” he requires players also to read aloud from Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville and Jack London. These excerpts from great literature certainly are the most unusual aspect of “Brain Age.” But there’s a lot more than reading aloud in this suite of 15 minigames developed by Kawashima, who claims to be a Japanese medical researcher with a specialty in improving the functions of the human brain.
Each day, players are supposed to fire up “Brain Age” and play several games involving math, vocabulary, short-term memory and critical thinking. Some days that involves reading aloud. Other days, it’s a Sudoku puzzle or rapid-fire math problems.

What am I?

Abuse me for I will not care.
Curse me when I stray from fair.
Brute force won’t put me in my place.
Smooth and even wins the race.
Envy colours where I rest.
No sandy beaches for the best.

Learn about the Sun

Summer solstice, that falls on June 21, is considered the longest day of the year because it has the most daylight hours between sunrise and sunset. In the summer, the North Pole tilts toward the sun, so the Northern Hemisphere gets more sunlight. On the solstice, the North Pole is tilted the closest to the Sun. On this day, the sun reaches its highest point in the sky.
There’s a lot to learn about our nearest star, the Sun, which may seem calm and steady but is always changing. Its energy causes weather and seasons. The sun provides heat for oceans, air and land. It creates water vapour by evaporating water from lakes and oceans, which drops as rain or snow. And plants and animals can’t survive without light and water.

Language Ladder

Raucous \RAW-kuss\ (adjective)
What does it mean?
1 Being harsh and unpleasant
2 Behaving in a rough and noisy way
How do you use it?
The announcer’s message could not be heard over the shouting and laughter of the raucous crowd.

Cabinet \KAB-nit\ (noun)
What does it mean?
1 (a) A case or cupboard usually having doors and shelves
(b) A case for a radio or television
2 A group of advisers to the political head of a government
How do you use it?
Liam and his dad sanded, stained, and then painted the doors of all the kitchen cabinets.

Immutable \ih-MYOO-tuh-bul\ (adjective)
What does it mean?
Impossible to change
How do you use it?
The immutable law of gravity explains why what goes up must come down.

Fill in the blanks

Word bank for the sentences below (words are listed alphabetically): Please put your answers in the blanks within the sentences.

CATALYST, DEPOSIT, ELEMENT, ELUVIAL, EQUILIBRIUM, EXPLORATION, FERMENT, FOSSIL, GRAVITATION, KINETIC, MAGNET, MATTER, MINERAL, MOLECULE, REACTION, SEDIMENTARY, SYNTHESIS, VELOCITY

1. Bobby puzzled over the odd directions pool balls take when they ricochet off each other, a result of a ________ action.
2. When the clerk tripped, spilling hundreds of tiny paper clips, he used a ________ to amass them into a pile.
3. The geologist at the excavation site discovered a significant ________, a print of bones from dinosaurs.
4. If Tim leaves his glass of milk in the hot sun all day, it will ________ and turn sour.
5. The physicist examined electrons and protons, the most minute particles which make up ________.
6. The statistician calculated and reported every hour the ________ of the hurricane winds.
7. On the windward slope, ________ deposits occurred with frequency and made hikers step cautiously.
8. Documentation states that on the moon there is less ________ than there is on earth.
9. Timmy avidly watched the birds make a ________ of small pieces of string, twigs and grasses into the nest.
10. Frank needs to study only one more abbreviation of an ________ to have memorised forty-five.
11. A diamond, unlike coal, is a ________ that has certain specific properties that can be determined and rated.
12. The scientist speculates that there can be no ________ between a mixture of ammonia and alcohol.
13. The chemist, peering into the powerful microscope, was frustrated to locate only a single atom in the ________.
14. Did you learn in class that a chemical ________ regulates the rate of its reactions?
15. ________ rocks have multiple colors because they are made from various fragments as well as animal and plant remains.

ANSWERS: 1. KINETIC 2. MAGNET 3. FOSSIL 4. FERMENT 5. MATTEr 6. VELOCITY 7. ELUVIAL 8. GRAVITATION 9. DEPOSIT 10. ELEMENT 11. MINERAL 12. SYNTHESIS 13. MOLECULE 14. CATALYST. 15 SEDIMENTARY

Know the prefixes better

AD = to, toward
CIRCUM = around — circumSPECT
CON-COM = with —conSPICuous
CONTRA = against
DE = down, from — deSPICable
E(X) = out of, outside — exPECT
EXTRA = beyond
IN-EN = in, into — inSPECT
INTER = between
OB = against PER = through, across — perSPECTive
POST = after
PRE = before, toward
PR0 = before, forward — proSPECT
RE = again — reSPECT
RETRO = backward — retroSPECT
SUB = under, below — suSPECT
TELE = far
TRANS = across

What are the world’s largest and the smallest fish?

The largest is the whale shark, which grows to more than 50 feet in length and may weigh several tons; second largest is the basking shark, which may measure 35 to 40 feet long. The smallest fish is the tiny goby, an inhabitant of fresh-to-brackish-water lakes in Luzon, Philippines. It seldom is longer than a half inch at adulthood, yet is so abundant it supports a fishery.

Don’t write, draw instead

It’s not illegal to have an illegible handwriting, but it’s annoying for both the person reading it and the one who has written it too. Not only are you constantly told to improve, but you can’t score well in essays sand tests because the teacher can’t understand what you have written. In order to avoid all these problems learn to draw and enroll for picture therapy.

“Good handwriting comes with practice, correct positioning of the hand and excellent hand control. And this is possible only when you have a good grip on your pencil/pen,” says Jameel Ahmed, an arts and handwriting teacher who has done research on developing retaining capabilities and handwriting skills in kids through drawing. Picture therapy, which is extensively used in schools these days can actually help you do this. “It’s very important for those of you who want to try your hand at calligraphy,” he says.

Crampy, uneven letters are a result of drawing the letters with the fingers rather than using the whole arm. “It’s also been noticed that children press down on the paper when they write, creating impressions on the subsequent pages. Lifting your hand often while writing also spoils your writing,” says popular artist Fahwad Tamkanat. Throwing more light on the idea, Mr Ahmed says, “Drawing figures relaxes your hand and allows it to move freely. It gives you a good control over your movements and curves.”

Here are a few tips that would help:

* Your fingers should move very little and your wrist even less. Your forearm does most of the gliding, while your shoulder provides the power.

* Hold the pen/pencil lightly, don’t squeeze it hard. Pretend that the barrel is a soft rubber and squeezing it will get you a big, fat blot. The thumb and forefinger should form an oval when you hold the pencil.

* Go by Picasso’s rule. Sharpen your instrument, whatever it is. The lines will be sharper and better.

* Never sit hunched or slump over the desk. Give your hand space to move.

* Practice making Xs and slashes, ///s and \\\s and Os overlapping each other. Make your lines, loops, circles and spirals freely.

* Create animal figures with letters. This will help you gain better control and also improve your pictorial skills. Try stretching, elongating the letters to test your skill at cursive writing.

Helpful games

* Practice cursive letters by playing Tic tac toe using two cursive letters instead of ‘x’ and ‘o’.

* Play hangman, but write the letter on paper instead of guessing it.

Create a thick rain forest

Thanks to a sealed environment that traps moisture but lets in light, this self-contained mini greenhouse needs little care. To make one, you’ll need a glass container with a top and an opening wide enough to fit your hand into, pea gravel or aquarium gravel, activated charcoal (available at gardening stores), potting soil mix and a selection of small houseplants. (Ours included a prayer plant, a button fern, a Persian shield, an aluminum plant and a miniature African violet.) First, place a 1 to 2 inch layer of the gravel in the container, then sprinkle a thin layer of the activated charcoal. Top this with a layer (from 2 inches to as much as one-fourth of the height of the terrarium) of potting soil.
To add the plants, first scoop out holes for planting, then take the plants from their pots and carefully remove any excess soil from their roots. Set the plants in their holes, then gently pack the soil around each one. Lightly mist the plants with a spray bottle. Replace the lid and set the rain forest in a bright spot away from direct sunlight. Check it every few weeks and add more water by lightly spritzing the plants with the spray bottle if the soil feels dry. If heavy condensation forms inside the glass, temporarily lift the cover to let some of the moisture escape.

Must read

Just Listen
by Sarah Dessen

Annabel Greene seemingly had everything a young girl would want: cool friends, close family, good grades, and a part-time modelling career. But it all comes crashing down one day, and Annabel gets trapped in a self-imposed exile. She finds herself dreading the new school term and facing everyone again. The last thing she wants to do is revisit old friendships. While the loss is very painful, the truth behind the rifts with her friends is disturbing. Her family seems too fragile to emotionally support her because they are also hiding secrets within them. . Why is there resentments between her two older sisters? Why doesn’t anybody want to talk about her middle sister’s eating disorder? All these secrets are revealed in parts, as she goes to amazing lengths to avoid confrontation.

Amazing Science

Scientists have discovered that harmless bacteria found in rivers produce a super glue which is stronger than any other glue in the world. According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the microorganism C. crescentus attaches to surfaces with three to four times the strength of commercial glue. The bacteria uses the biological glue to attach itself to surfaces with a stalk-like appendage. Tests show that the amount of bacteria that fits onto a quarter could withstand a pulling force of four to five tons, which is about the weight of an adult elephant. Scientists hope that this research will lead to new, stronger, synthetic adhesives.

Language Ladder

convulse \kun-VULSS\ verb
What does it mean?
To shake violently; especially : to shake with usually uncontrolled jerky movements
How do you use it?
“He gazed at me with bleared, drunken eyes for a moment, and then I saw a horror spring up in them, and convulse his whole features, which showed me that he knew me.” (Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet)

tarmac \TAR-mak\ noun
What does it mean?
A road, apron, or runway paved with layers of crushed stone covered with tar
How do you use it?
Did you hear how lucky Eva and Ricky were? They got to be on the tarmac and greet the dignitaries as they arrived at the airport.

ballot \BAL-ut\ noun
What does it mean?
1. A small ball used in secret voting or a sheet of paper used to cast a vote
2. a:The action or system of voting
b : the right to vote
3. The number of votes cast
How do you use it?
In the last town election, paper ballots were used after a power failure caused the electronic voting booths to malfunction.

subterfuge \SUB-ter-fyooj\ noun
What does it mean?
1. The action of deceiving usually by slyness in order to avoid some unpleasant circumstance (as to escape blame)
2. A plan or trick that employs sly deception
How do you use it?
Catherine faked a headache to get out of her share of the spring house cleaning, but her mom saw through the subterfuge and assigned her to washing windows.

tractable \TRAK-tuh-bul\ adjective
What does it mean?
Easily led, taught, or controlled
How do you use it?
“The Old Lady made a marvellously patient and tractable invalid." (Lucy Maud Montgomery, Chronicles of Avonlea)